Allostatic load and health in parents living under different social conditions

Project leader

Funding source

Forte - Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare

Project Details

Start date: 01/01/2009

End date: 31/12/2011

Funding: 2250000SEK

Description

The aim is to investigate how the physical and social environment interacts with people’s behavior and biological systems and contributes to social and gender inequalities in health. The theoretical basis is the Allostatic Load Model by McEwen et al., which describes under what conditions bodily responses to stress are health promoting versus health damaging.

The research will be carried out at the Centre for Health Equity Studies (CHESS) with expertise in psychological, sociological, medical and public health areas, and with international collaborators.

The higher burden of illness associated with low socioeconomic status and female gender is of scientific, applied and political interest and importantce. By an integrated and theoretically based psychological, sociological, medical and public health approach, combining different forms of analyses (variable, index and cluster analysis), we expect to gain new important information relevant for prevention and intervention (e.g., health promotion).